Recently my neighbor asked me to take a look at a local "Karate" school. He was considering placing his son in this school. He knows that I am a Krav Maga instructor so he wanted my opinion. I agreed and we both went to the "Karate" school.

The first thing I noticed was the "Karate" school was actually a Tae Kwon Do school. I find that many TKD schools market themselves as Karate schools because Karate has a generic association with MA. But I digress.

I walk into this school and to my horror I noticed that there were at least 3 "black belts" in this school who were no older than 13! WTF? A thirteen year old Black belt? Are you kidding me?

As an instructor I was embarrased! I don't care how long your kid has been practicing no 13 year old should be a black belt. Black belt means that you are a "expert". Would any of you enroll in a school that had children ranked as "experts"?

This is one of things that just gets on my nerves. If a kid knows Katas, forms, breaks boards and can execute kicks does this make him/her a black belt? Come on! Awarding a child a black belt completely removes any integrity from the system in which the kid studies!

To me this is nothing other than a calculated marketing ploy and parents fall for it. More importantly the student takes with him a false sense of security and that could get the child hurt. What are your thoughts?

You're a little late observing this. I've seen this being done for more than 25 years. And in that time the sky hasn't fallen or much else except society has gone to blazes in general (just a gentle jest).

Training groups are what they are, they're not all equal.

Rank is what it is, and it's not all equal.

I've been training young people for over 25 years now, and on the average it takes them 7 to 9 years to become a black belt, and by then they're no longer young.

Is it controversial, not really. I disagree with your definition that black belt means expert. I hardly consider new black belts experts in any system I've seen. I think a better definition is they're no longer beginners and are now students.

But the issue behind young people that I have isn't age (actually I've seen some incredible 12 and 13 year olds, including one 13 year old young woman to took first place in National Isshinryu competition in weapons, against all adult men in the division).

The main issue I see is they really can't choose to be a student. They're under their parents guidance. Their parents make them get to class (and drive them) and support them. They haven't made their own choices to be a student and enter deeper training, and at 13 very few can do that.

But it's relative. If we are in dislike of the pactice, it's so universal in some groups at this point, nobody anywhere is really going to take notice.

One of the most vivid impressions I retain from that school was when we went as a huge group to participate in a tournament in another town. It was held in a local gym.

Late that afternoon, one of our child BB's let his Mickey Mouse stuffed doll walk off. So he stood in the middle of the bleachers, in the middle of the tournament, in full uniform and belt, and threw screaming temper tantrum. He was about 8.

Look I know that there are some very talented young folks out there but come on. This is a phenomenon that must be eradicated! It is ridiculous and personally I can't take any school seriously that promotes this type of nonsense!

i don't know about your school, but my students are expert by blackbelt.it takes 12-14 years to get there.if your income comes from teaching(mine does not) and you must teach children,I feel that a distinction should be made between ranks.perhaps Jr. black belts or staying at a blue belt until 16 yrs old. there are age distinctions and classes at competitions for good reason.would you set your 12 year old black belt against my 30 year old?think about it.mantis